56 lFiE RI N IS ND IN Fl RID b>>-' .f -* ... , ... 'l. ,<- }{ :i,.. '1.:,*" >.;tOt ". , " . ',' J,,' 'f i t... * t .: ,. .<- "R . M . .. -::-.;: . -: ... ."..: . .t.. , '.,' 0/., .. :::: -:.: .. p, þ' " :: t[çz < i:;' .'.,.: ,, $: " ":.---., ::: '" '" <'i, .Y ": 'Ø' .... -'. .:. :':{'-.. " .. N' . ...."?::.-..:. Y - ^" .w.. ';;' " .,\";' \,^ .::f. ,', ,. " .$:. ' ;;; ..:: :,/'- -; :.:" , ", x<::,: :,. , ',::" . :2'.. x' ,', "'::- .:: A holiday setting of untamed beauty just 18 minutes by car from Miami Airport. Beautiful Key Biscayne. As superb a vacation island as you've ever seen With a winter vacation resort as superb as its setting. Just a short d rive across the causeway from Miami - but In feeling, far, far away. You'll find miles of wild beaches. White sands. Blue seas. Hiking trails Ten cushion-surface tennis courts Championship golf 5 minutes away. Two swimming pools. Fine cuisine. Beautiful new rooms,with two double beds, terrace and ocean view. And all the fun of Miami, to love or leave as you like See your travel agent. Or call the convenient toll-free Sheraton Res- ervation Number' 800-325-3535. "* RO't4L BIÇQf{NE BEACH HOTEL& RACQUET CLUB. KEY BISCAYNE. FLORIOA A SHERATON RESORT HOTEl A WORLDWIDE SERVICE OF rrr , ries in question involved the hiring of d . "". stan -Ins to serve as customers 111 a story about how the recession was af- fecting Las Vegas gambling casinos (because the casinos would not permit real customers to be filmed) and the simulation of an emergency run by a police car in a film sequence about the Seattle Police Department. Another basic technique of creating film for editing purposes involves shoot- ing additional silent footage, from vari- ous angles, of the princIpal participants and the background settings of a news event. The silent footage can then be intercut wIth the sound film according to the demands of the story line. One type of such silent footage that is required bv all three networks is the "cut- away shot." Often, the cutaway is a view of an audience's reac- . - tion while the news subject is ..-- speaking. Most stories involving press conferences, hearings, speeches, and interviews need cutaway shots to facilitate smooth editing. This is be- cause they afford the editor a good deal of flexibilitv in matching the film to the stor) line. A C.B.S. manual explains: Because of time limits and in order to heighten impact, television must shorten speeches. . This is difficult to do unless the cameraman furnishes a visual "mean- vvhile," or cutaway. For example, in shooting a speech, be sure to make several shots of audience reaction If there's no audience, shoot other nevvsmen, or your ovvn sound camera. These clips will fur- nish the second-and-a-half cutavvays vvhich the film editor can insert to avoid a "jump cut" if he wants to clip a sentence from the middle of one lens "take." Other- vvise, the speaker's head vvould seem to jump.... In this connection, it often helps to shoot a roll or tvvo of stock cutavvays for editing use-various shots of the film crevv, close-ups of a hand vvriting on a pad, reporters' faces, etc. Though the majority of network news stories in vol ve people talking, there is also a category of stories con- cerned mainly with visual acÓon, such as riots, demonstrations, and disasters, in which the pictures need not be syn- chronized with words spoken at the time but can he shown with a "voice- over" narration. In these action stories, /' cameramen are usually given free rein, with the understanding that they will seek out the most dramatic or exciting moments of the event. One N.B.C. cameraman has explained, "v\That the ? producers want on the film is as much blood and vIolence as we can find. That's the name of the game, and ev- ery cameraman knows it" The pro- ducers' fondness for action film is based to some extent on their assumption that MARCH 3, I 973 the audience is more likely to be en- grossed by visual excItement than by "talking heads" -that is, a film of people talking about issues. This as- sumption, in turn, may be based on network research showing that the au- dience for network news tends to be older and to have lec;s income dnd education than the general television audience. (Such research probably indicates not that news is inherently more Interesting to older, less educated viewers but only that such viewers usually are in the majority in the early evening, when network news is broadcast. ) Many producers say that the one ingredient necessary for "a good action stor)" is visually identifiable opponents clashing violently. This ordinarily requires unIforms of some sort-for in- stance, military troops or police- men fighting civilians. Demon- strations or scenes of violence involving less clearly identifiable groups would make less effective stories, since, as one C.B.S. producer has put it, "it would be hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys." Thus, action stories are expected to stress the presumed claims and dif- ferences of opposed groups. Interviews and narration that define these distinc- tions and prepare the audience for the ensuing action are preferred to discus- sions that point to a more complex re- lationship between and wIthin the groups. Since each of the partIcipants in the process of constructing news sto- ries for television-the cameraman, the sound recorder, the correspondent, the editor, and the producer-has some relatively set ideas of the kind of ma- terial that is expected for each type of story, the "reality" produced tends to be shaped, if not predetermined, bv thIS web of expectations. r - - N ETWORK news organizations are not, of course, independent entities; they are integral parts of hroad- casting corporations, who executives a]locate the time and money for news programs and appoint the top news ex- ecutives. 'I'he networks, in turn, are heavily dependent on their affiliates- television stations they do not own or control-to broadcast theIr program- ming over the airwaves. And these stations are licensed by the federal government and are responsible for the programs they broadcast. Network news staffs thus operate under condi- tions and rules defined by other or- ganI7atIons. The business side of network televI- sion was succInctly described by an N.B.C. vice-president in testimony he